Multicolor strip shingle and method of making the same



May 13, 1939. I c RAHR 1,758,059

Original Fild May 1926 jm/wziar:

- Ple s- .1, 13.1930

rim-r n sures ATE roFFlcs (IHIESTEIB. E'RAIIR, OF BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY'IIESKE ASSIGN- HENTS, TO THE PATENT AND LICENSDTG CORPORATION, OF BOSTON, SETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS i nun'rrconon srnrnsnmenn AND mnrnon or name THE Application illed'lay 8,1926, Serial ll'o. 108,801. Renewed August 1989.

This invention relates, to manufactured roofing which is formed. into elements of a shape generally known as strip shingles. In laying elements .of this type on a roof, it is fre uently desirable to obtain variegated color e ects to break up the monotony of a single colored roof. Efforts to produce such efiects by coloring such roofing elements in various ways have usually resulted in streaky, blotchy or geometrical patterns on the roof as a whole, which are undesirable. I have found that such undesirable effects may be avoided and that pleasing and artistically haphazard effects may be obtained by laying strip shinfigles, which are surfaced with areas of di such a way that the boundaries between such areas will substantially coincide with lines of division between individual shingle portions of the strip. These portions are preferably indicated on the strip b marks on, or grooves or slots in the strip whlch define shingle-simulating tabs. The color areas on the strip thus-register with one or more of the tabs so defined. v

The invention is not limited to elements made of any particular material or material's,--but is applicable to roofing made of any materials suitable for the purpose and capable of being made into sheets, strips or slabs. Such-materialsmay include moldable substances, such as cements, or certain hydrocarbons, with or without metallic reinforceme'nt, or felted substances, such asrag or asbestos fiber, or combinations of such substances. One widely used roofing material is so-called roofing felt which is customarily saturated and coated with suitable waterproofing compounds. 'Such felt is usually formed in a continuous sheet on a paper-making machine from a ulpstock containing rag, asbest os'or otherfi rs. The feltis made sufiiciently absorbent to take up a considerable amount of liquefied waterproofing saturant with which it is then impregnated. After saturation it is coated with a protective impervious material such as blown asphalt which has a relatively high melting point. While the coating material is still sticky, it is usually-covered with surfacing material slate, grit or other suitable granular mate-- erent colors arranged in rial which serves to protect the asphalt coat ing from the deteriorating action of the weather. I

The granular surfacing, which is applied such as crushed to the asphalt. coating, not only protects the latter, but also affords opportunities for finishing the elements in a variety of ways to give the-roofs on which they are laid various artistic and pleasing effects. It is an object of my invention to apply such surfacing material in a variety of colors to the roofing in such away that the tabs of the finished strip shingles will-have distinguishing solid "colors, the boundaries between color areas coming between tabs.

On the drawing,- 4

Figure 1 represents diagrammatically apparatus which can be used for making roof-, in elements according to my invention.

igure 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of a sheet of roofing material with a hopper designed to deposit surfacing material on the sheet.

Figure 3 is one form of strip shingle made accordin to my invention.

Referring to the drawing in detail, 10 represents a supply of roofing base such for example as r00 g felt, from which a sheet 11 may be led through a saturating tank 12 where it is throughly impregnated with a suitable asphaltic or waterproofing compound. The excess saturant is pressed from the sheet as by a pair of rolls 13. The sheet is then coated on its upper surface with any suitableiimpervious material such as blown asphalt, which on account of its high melting point and rubbery consistency is well adapted for the purpose. This coating matenal may be supplied through a spout 14 or in any other suita 1e way, a pair of rolls 15 being provided to spreadv the material out into a layer of uniform thickness, any excess material falling ofi' the edges of the sheet being caught as by a receptacle 16 and recycled. While the layer of coating is still sticky, comminuted surfacing material is applied there- .to as by a-hopper 17 which as shown in Figher of partitions 18 forming compartments 19 which may be used for materials of different colors. It will be obvious from F igure 2 that such a hopper can, if continuously operated, deposit longitudinal bands of different colors on the sheet passing therebeneath. The sheet 11 may then be passed about a roll 20 which serves to press the layer of comminuted material against the sticky layer of coating and thus to cause sufficient of the grit to adhere to the coating to substantially cover the same. Excess grit which does not adhere to the coating will be carried on around on the roll 20 and will drop back into the respective compartments 19 from which it came. If desired, guides or vanes may be supported in any suitable way above the partitions 18 and edgewise toward the surface of the roller 20 to prevent the different kinds of grit from intermixing. Ordinarily, however, such guides will not be required to return the different kinds of grit to their respective compartments. If the grit be applied properly in suitable quantity, the intermingling of grits of different colors on the lines between adjacent color bands will be negligible, and an narrow stripe of mixed color which may be formed between bands will be removed or made inconspicuous on the exposed portion of the shingle by the tabdefining indicia. The sheet may then be cooled, slotted, and cut as desired into units or elements of desired size and shape, or as shown in the drawing it may be coated on the reverse side as by a spout 21, through which suitable impervious coating material may be deposited on the sheet and spread out by rolls 22.v Another be per 23 may be provided which is prefera ly constructed similar to the hopper 17 with a plurality of compartments for holding grit of different kinds or colors. After the sheet has received grits from the hopper 23, it is preferably passed about a roll 24: which serves to press the grit into adhesive contact with the coated surface, excess grits of the various kinds being carried around and dropping back from the roll 24 into their respective compartments in the hopper 23. The sheet 11 now being coated and surfaced with grit on one or both sides as desired, may now be led through any suitable refrigerating device, such as that indicated at 25. This may be of any desired type such as an air blast or suction or a series of cooled rollers or loopers. A slotting device 26 may be provided to cut transverse lines or rows of slots 29 in the sheet which will define shingle-simulating tabs of square, hexagonal or other shapes in the finished elements. Instead of cutting slots, other methods may be used to define such tabs, such as gouging or pressing grooves or channels in one or both faces of the sheet or otherwise scoring or marking the sheet. A cutter 27 is provided to sever the finished elements from the sheet, as indicated by reference numeral 32 in Fig. 2, these elements being collected as by a receptacle 28 from which they are packed for shipment. As indicated in Figure 3, the cut-outs in the sheet which form the tab-defining notches may be so arranged that the strips may be cut from the sheet in head-to-head and butt-to-butt sequence, in which case the cuts will alternately intersect one of the rows of cut-outs and fall between successive rows. The figure il lustrates a strip shingle 33 embodying the invention, a dotted outline 34 being added to indicate the position an adjacent shingle strip of the same shape may have in the sheet from which the strips are cut. The form of shingle shown in Figure 3 is of the hex variety and illustrates one of many different forms of tab which may be made in addition to the square tab shingle shown in Figure 2. It is obvious that the head-to-head and butt-to-butt method of cutting will apply equally well to the making of square tab or hex-tab shingles.

Whatever may be the shape of the tabs cut, the face of the element is surfaced with grit of different colors disposed in definite color areas 30, the boundaries between adjacent areas 31 being substantially identical with the lines of division between adjacent indi vidual shingle portions of the strip and alined with the tab-defining slots or other indicia. If desired, the reverse side of this roofing element may be similarly surfaced, a different combination of color areas being arranged so as to provide an assortment of color combinations by turning some of the strips over.

Roofing units of this kind comprising a plurality of individual shingle portions, each of which is surfaced with a distinguishing solid color, permit the laying of pleasing and artistic roofs which are-free from Streaky and blotchy eflects.

I claim:

1. The method of making multi-colored strip shingles, which comprises coating a sheet of roofing felt with water-proofing ma terial, applying granular matter of different colors to a coated face of the sheet in bands of different colors, applying granular matter of different colors to the opposite faces of the a sheet to form color bands registering with the first-named color bands, cutting series of slots on the boundaries between adjacent colors, and cutting through said slots transversely of the color bands.

2. The method of making multi-colored strip shingles, which comprises slotting and surfacing a sheet of roofing material, the slots being cut in series of rows and the surfacingbeing applied in bands of different colors so that all the boundaries between successive bands register with slots, and cutting the sheet transversely, each row of slots being intersected by one of said cuts.

3. The method of making multi-colored strip shingles, which comprises coating one face of a sheet of roofing felt with waterproofing material, applying granular material to the coated face in bands of different colors, coating the opposite face of the sheet with waterproofing material, applying granular material to said opposite coated face in bands of different colors having boundaries between colors opposite respectively to the boundaries between color bands on the first coated face, cutting a series of slots on said boundaries, and cutting through said slots transversely of said color bands.

4. The method of making multi-colored strip shingles, which comprises slotting and surfacing a sheet of roofing material, the slots being cut in series of rows and the surfacing bemg applied to both faces of the sheet in bands of different colors with boundaries registering with certain of said Slots, and cutting the sheet transversely, each row of slots being intersected by one of said cuts.

5. The method of making multi-colored strip shingles, which comprises coating a sheet of roofing felt with waterproofing material, applying granular matter to a coated face of the sheet inbands of different colors, applying granular matter to the opposite face of the sheet, cuttingseries of slots on the boundaries between adjacent color bands, and cutting through said slots transversely of the color bands.

' 6. In a method for manufacturing shingles strips wherein the exposed areas are formed to simulate individual shingles when laid with others in overlapping courses on a roof,

the improvement consisting in surfacing the strip with a plurality of parallel bands of mineral grit, each band presenting throughout the width of the exposed portion thereof a substantially uniform appearance, but with the appearance of one band markedly conoverlapping courses one roof, said stri comprising a base, a 'plurahty of parallel ands, composed of mineral grits, disposed thereon,

each band presenting throughout the width;

of the exposed portion thereof a substantially uniform appearance but with the appearance.

signature.

CHESTER E. RAHR.

trasting with the appearance of its adjacent ban'd and in providing in the strip tab defining slots existing between each adjacent band along the lower exposed portion there of to separate each uniformly appearing band on each side from its adjacent contrasting bands so that the differently colored bands present the appearance of individual 7 separated shingles.

7. The method of making multi-colored strip shingles which comprises coating a sheet of roofing felt with waterproofing material, applying granular matter to a coated face of the sheet in bands of different colors, applying granular matter to the opposite face of the sheet and cutting a series of slots in the boundaries between the adjacent bands. 8. A multi-colored shingle strip wherein the exposed areas are formed to simulate individual shingles when laid with others in 

